This invention relates generally to safety devices for use with hypodermic needles. More specifically, this invention relates to retention devices for holding and recapping hypodermic needles for reuse in administering unit dose medication through an intravenous injection port.
Inadvertent needle prick injuries occurring during recapping of hypodermic needles have long been problematic in the medical profession. As a result, various devices have been developed for holding needle caps remote from a user. These devices permit reinsertion of the hypodermic needle in the needle cap with reduced risk of needle prick injury to the user. Nevertheless, because of either their complexity and cost, or their inconvenience, these devices have not been widely used in the medical community. Medical personnel have instead generally resorted to merely discarding uncapped hypodermic needles that have been used rather than taking the extra safety step of recapping the used needles for reuse or disposal. While this approach provides one solution to the risk of injury during use, the discarding of unprotected needles may nonetheless produce inadvertent needle prick injuries during the handling of hospital waste products. Additionally, the failure to reuse hypodermic needles where reuse is appropriate, such as in unit dose medication through intravenous injection ports, increases the numbers of new hypodermic needles which need to be made, thus tending to drive up the cost of health care.
Hypodermic needles are routinely used for unit dosing of medication, where needles are repeatedly inserted into intravenous injection ports of associated intravenous infusion tubing for repeated administration of small doses of medication. For the above mentioned reasons, hypodermic needles are currently either being reused during unit dosing without being recapped, thus increasing the risk of needle prick injury, or they are discarded after each unit dose has been administered, having the effect of increasing the cost of medical care without satisfactorily removing the risk of injury.
A need therefore exists for an improved needle and needle cap retainer. Such a device would facilitate safe recapping of used hypodermic needles by reducing inadvertent needle prick injuries. A need also exists for a needle and needle cap retainer which provides safe manipulation of used hypodermic needles in conjunction with intravenous infusion tubing. Such a device would allow hypodermic needles to be safely used during repeated administration or unit dosing of medication.